< Repeating yourself isn't always a bad thing : 5 ways to conquer writer's block >
Back in March I looked at a site's life cycle, focusing on three key points:- Start a blog for the right reasons.
- Find your niche.
- Take your readers on a journey.
I've been in that situation on and off for a few weeks now, so it seemed like a good opportunity to look at that unanswered question and address it.
What exactly is a life cycle?
life cycle: a progression through a series of differing stages of development
For me, the real question is whether this progression has to be linear? Are we always moving forward, passing milestones and going further and further away from where we began?
Or should we treat a life cycle as something that goes around and around in a cycle? A circular motion?
If you go round in a circle, you'll eventually end up right back where you started. Perhaps going round in circles will get you nowhere, but you could start with a small circle and gradually move into broader circles.
Why go over old ground?
Republishing posts you've already posted before might not be the best thing to do, but revisiting previous topics with new experience can have very positive results.Why move into broader circles?
When you're starting out, I think you need to keep things fairly simple. Focus on something specific and continue writing about it for as long as you can. When you run low on content, you could revisit previous topics or you could expand your horizons a little.You're not changing things simply to find new topics to write about. Remember, the life cycle of your site is all about progression. Over time, we learn and grow, develop skills, and perhaps different things interest us. Six months after you launch your site, you may be in quite a different place to when you started.
What else can you write about?
You should already be writing about something that interests you. If you find there is a subject within your existing range of topics that you enjoy writing about and that stimulates discussions with your readers, you could write more posts on that subject.A good example is Entrecard. It might not fit with everyone's original niche, but plenty of sites are writing about it. Sites have been set up that publish Entrecard-related content exclusively. Compared to other sites it's still quite new, and that means more things to write about that other people haven't discussed yet.
Well, it did mean that when Entrecard launched, anyway...
Tackling creative block
Being a creative person means you open up to the possibility of hitting a brick wall. When you hit that wall, you can climb over it, go back the way you came, stop completely, or try a different route altogether. Assuming you keep going, each path is filled with challenges. I believe this can happen whether you're a writer, a musician, a photographer or you create something entirely different.If you change your site, will your readers have a problem with it? Will new readers take their place? Would you keep writing if nobody was reading?
An opportunity to excel?
If things aren't going so well, why not try writing about something slightly different? Stay within your niche if possible, but perhaps go off on a tangent for a few posts and see if the posts are well received. If the alternative is to publish bad posts or no posts, do you have a lot to lose?Experimentation is the key!
Over to you...
Can you relate to any of this?Have you hit writer's block?
If so, how did you deal with it?
If not, do you have any suggestions for avoiding it?
Tags: life cycle, progression, broader circles, creative block, writer's block, opportunity
Posted by Ben on May 05, 2008 19:43 / Edited: May 05, 2008 21:42
Comments
Ben, you are always so imformative!! What would we mere mortals do without you?
Vincent - good points! I have a list of ideas for future posts saved as a draft, and I often look there for new ideas. Thanks for the comment. :)
Suze - thank you! :)
Um... I would NOT like to see any more posts on entrecard!
And I agree with Vincent... most things in life are cyclic. I suppose it ties in with my favourite theory that everything exists in balance whether we immediately see the balance or not.
My only problem with saving as drafts is that... because I don't think of it as a 'proper' post, I won't finish it at all... and then when I come back to it later - I've completely forgotten what my main point was!
(Sorry for the haphazard-ness of this comment... my mind is a little all over the place at the moment)
fragileheart - yes, a lot of people write about Entrecard. ;) It's a good example though because it wasn't that long ago that Entrecard launched. It goes to show that the site is popular, certainly.
I like drafts, and I don't forget what I was on about if I write a good enough draft. The issue I face is when it's a topic that I find difficult to write about for whatever reason.
Oh you mean your drafts are more than the title and a couple of lines kind of leading into where you wanted to go? lol That's what my drafts look like!
lol yes, something like that :)
Most things in life are cyclic. The progress and growth of a web site isn't any different. Revisiting previous topics can trigger new ideas or angles. For example, you might have new ideas based on current events for an old topic.
And I've gotten so many writer's blocks I've lost count. What I do now is to keep track of ideas and note them down. They can be big, they can be small. It doesn't matter; note them down. Then if I ever get into an exasperating evening where I don't have any inspiration, I look through that list.
Of course, I look through that list even if I'm not exasperated... Sometimes, ideas need to be written while they're still fresh from the mental oven.
Sometimes, if I'm in a complete wreck of a state of mind, I'd just not write. I think it happened only once. It was a terrible period of time. I was writing into the giant black hole of the Internet, and no one seemed to know or care...
Which brings me to the next point: definitely write even if no one else is reading it. Love every single word you write. Because if you don't, no one else will. I remember jumping for joy when I got my very first subscriber...